Aromatherapy
…I found fragrance helped me express myself in a much deeper and more significant way than words alone; because through participating in the power of scent, I was no longer describing everything in purely mental, abstract terms, but had to root myself in my own bodily senses and the world around me..my direct lived experience. And so I discovered that while words are born from the mind, fragrance, to me, is about connecting to the heart and the scent of the soul…
–Michael Scholes,
Teacher and Founder of the Laboratory of Flowers
Scentuality is the realm that takes us beyond words.
The power of scent can open us to the process of the felt sense, rooting us back to our bodies and nature. It expands our soul essence for within the oils is an ensoulment of spirit. They create an influx of feeling through their many qualities and we may not only find ease from anxiety, pain, and imbalance but learn our soul’s desires: we smell until feeling reveals itself.
I became a certified aromatherapist over 25 years ago, after discovering the power of these essences and the art of blending. I created Ananke Oils (Goddess of Necessity) after realizing the necessity of balance in myself, the world, and others.
The blends I create are individualized to each person, their needs, their lacks, their obstacles, their strengths, so that their faculties can blossom. I look beyond the words told to me to see what may be hidden underneath. It can be an alchemical, magical, mysterious process to get to this opening. The poet Hafiz said that “…the rose opened its heart and gave beauty to this world by feeling the encouragement of light.” If you have ever peeled a rose, petal by petal, you will have seen the deepest scent is at its heart. I feel the oils open us to the light within, opening the door to balance and self-awareness.
Every plant has its own signature and the ability to connect to something deep inside us. I bring the new scent into being by using the root, the trunk, the bark, the twig, the leaf, the fruit, the seed, and the flower; merging the many different energies while creating a synergy of the elemental powers. Some of this is intuitive, yet I also use The Hippocratic Charts, The Anthroposophical model, and an awareness of the chemical constituents and how they interact with each other.
The oils themselves have been my teachers. Their viscosity, their textures, and their personalities — as well as their color and fragrance — have awakened my imagination and connection to nature linking me back to long lines of ancient healers and healing.
I invite you to enter the realm of scent in this way, with personalized gifts of the earth, as new avenues in your body and being are opened.